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One of the big surprises in Dune: Part Two was the reveal that Anya Taylor-Joy had a small cameo role in the film as a future version of Alia Atreides, the unborn younger sister of Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides. But getting that small scene together and keeping it a secret was no easy feat for Taylor-Joy. During a profile with Variety, Taylor-Joy revealed that the biggest obstacle that almost kept her out of the movie was her leading role in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Taylor-Joy also told Variety that she’s a big fan of Dune director Denis Villeneuve, but she was dismayed to learn that his sequel was filming at the same time as Furiosa.

“I skipped all the stages of grief and went straight to begging,” recalls Taylor-Joy. “I was like, ‘I can do this. I can be in Australia and Abu Dhabi at the same time.’ He wanted me to be part of the universe. We kept in touch. I just had this feeling that it wasn’t over.”

Although she attempted to keep tabs on Dune: Part Two’s production while shooting Furiosa, Taylor-Joy was told by her agents that the film had started shooting without her. It wasn’t until she was finished with Furiosa that Taylor-Joy discovered that Villeneuve had made special arrangements for her.

“[Villeneuve] said, ‘I made a deal with the studio: If I was on budget and on time, I could do this.'” That allowed Taylor-Joy to shoot her scene with Villeneuve and a small crew in Namibia. Villeneuve and Taylor-Joy also went to great lengths to keep her role a surprise.

“No one at the studio knew,” recalls Taylor-Joy. “My face had been blurred out [in early cuts of the film].”

Dune: Messiah was announced shortly after Dune: Part Two was a hit at the box office. And Villeneuve made it clear to Variety that he wants Taylor-Joy back for that movie as well.

“Shooting with Anya in Africa was nothing short of magical,” said Villeneuve. “Her generosity, candor and passion truly moved me. I can’t wait to go back on Arrakis with her.”

Ever thought of yourself as a top-notch video editor? Now is your chance to put hundreds of hours honed by creating anime music videos to the test in Bandai Namco’s Elden Ring contest. The publisher of 2022’s hit game has challenged players to create their own Elden Ring trailer, and the first-place winner of the Return to Grace contest will win a 10-foot statue of Messmer the Impaler as a prize.

The runner-up winners of the best narrative, best action, and best direction awards won’t be walking away empty-handed either, because Bandai Namco will reward them with a life-sized replica of Malenia’s prosthetic arm. Or maybe that means they are walking away empty-handed.

Finally, the winners of the best comedy, best use of sound, best armor design, and the most original use of the Elden Ring IP will win a replica of Messemer the Impaler’s helmet. This contest is only open to US residents, trailers must not be longer than five minutes, and they must be uploaded to YouTube to be eligible. You’re probably going to want to see if you have enough space for the grand prize in case you win, because that is a big collectible.

For the rest of the Elden Ring fandom, it’s not long to go before the game’s highly anticipated expansion Shadow of the Erdtree launches on June 21 for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. This will be the only DLC expansion for Elden Ring, as game director Hidetaka Miyazaki confirmed that no other new content will be added to the game after it arrives.

Bandai Namco stated that Elden Ring would be made “in a variety of other areas” besides gaming, and so far, that strategy has seen the rollout of several terrific action figures and a hilarious Elden Ring manga series.

The newest patches for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Warzone have arrived, fixing some key issues that were introduced in the recent Season 3 Reloaded update.

Specifically, this update fixes an issue pertaining to sprinting. After the Season 3 Reloaded update went live, players noticed that when using the Commando Gloves perk, reloads became canceled when running with automatic tactical-sprint. However, this bug is now fixed.

The update also fixes an issue on the Skidgrow map that previously allowed players to reach an “exploitable location” on the roof. For Zombies, the patch fixes bugs pertaining to reloading and AI incorrectly targeting players, and it also clears out an issue that caused players to get stuck outside the map.

The Warzone patch, meanwhile, fixes the same tactical-sprint bug mentioned above and addresses an issue where squad members would see an incorrect ping.

You can see the full patch notes below for Modern Warfare III multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone, as shared on the official patch notes website.

In other Call of Duty news, Activision could be gearing up to announce the next entry in the series soon, and it could be Black Ops Gulf War.

MULTIPLAYER

UIX

• Bug Fixes
  • Hardcore Quick Play will no longer display an erroneous Free Trial tag.
  • Weekly Challenge countdown timer will no longer display an invalid time as the Midseason update approaches.
  • Fixed overlapping weapon images on the HUD when two Melee weapons are equipped.

PROGRESSION

• Max Weapon Level prerequisite for Weapon Prestige Camos is now consistently applied, as intended.
• Challenges involving Stim usage no longer require at least 50% regain to progress.

MAPS

• Skidgrow
  • Added collision to prevent players from reaching an exploitable location on the Roof.

MODES

• Escort
  • Resolved an issue causing poor performance and lack of functionality upon joining a match.
  • Lights on the MAW will no longer appear to detach as the match progresses.
  • Implemented various fixes for match timer inconsistencies.
  • Care Package crates are now destroyed upon collision with the MAW.

PERKS

• Commando Gloves
  • Reloads are no longer canceled upon moving when the Automatic Tactical Sprint setting is enabled.

EQUIPMENT

• In Hardcore game modes, the minimap is now displayed on the HUD while an EMD tracking device is active on an enemy.

RANKED PLAY

• Restricted the Scratch 20-L Suppressor Attachment.
• Restricted the EMD Mine Equipment.
• Restricted the Enhanced Vision Goggles Field Upgrade.

ZOMBIES

UIX

• When completing the Calling Card Prestige 9 Mastery Challenge, the correct title, “Let ‘Em Have It!” will now be displayed.
• Fixed a bug where splash notifications after completing Armory Unlocks and events appeared blank.

GAMEPLAY

• Dark Aether Rift
  • All squads can now contribute Zombie kills to the Relic Attunement.
  • Decreased kill requirement to complete Relic Attunement.
  • Fixed a bug that resulted in the final obelisk being activated earlier than intended, breaking the story sequence.
• Fixed a reload inconsistency that occurred after Pack-a-Punch with the JAK Wardens Conversion Kit equipped on the Lockwood Mk2.
• Fixed a bug where Wonder Weapons appeared as common gray instead of gold rarity in a Dark Aether Rift.
• Resolved a bug that resulted in players getting stuck in out of map locations after being grabbed by a Mimic.
• Resolved an issue at Rainmaker’s Fortress where Mortar AI incorrectly targeted players with an intact Sergeant’s Beret disguise.

PROGRESSION

• Resolved an issue where completing one squad’s Attunement prematurely ended another’s.
• Launcher Camo Challenges for MWII weapons have been adjusted to facilitate completion.

WARZONE

BUG FIXES

• Fixed the issue causing automatic tactical sprint to interrupt attempts to reload a weapon.

• Fixed an issue causing the Prioritize Interact setting on controllers to prevent players from reloading.

• Fixed an issue preventing the host from starting a Private Match when over the player threshold.

• Fixed an issue causing Squad members to see the incorrect ping on the Champion’s Quest contract.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said in-game advertising could become a “meaningful driver of growth” for the company’s bottom line. Speaking during the company’s latest earnings briefing, Wilson said “it’s still early on that front,” and if this is something EA does decide to push further into, the company will be “thoughtful” about it.

In 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign paid EA to put political ads in Burnout Paradise to try to get people to vote for him. Prior to that, 2006’s Battlefield 2142 and Need for Speed Carbon featured in-game ads. In 2007, EA signed a deal with an ad company to bring in-game ads to Madden, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NHL, and NASCAR games, as well as Skate.

Wilson said during the earnings call that, for any future in-game ad campaigns, EA would try to be “very thoughtful” about how they might be implemented.

“As we think about the many, many billions of hours spent, both playing, creating, watching and connecting and where much of that engagement happens to be on the bounds of a traditional game experience, our expectation is that advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us,” he said. “We’ll be very thoughtful as we move into that, but we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how do we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences.”

Wilson was specifically discussing in-game ads in the context of “more traditional AAA games” and not necessarily mobile, where ads of all types are more commonplace.

EA’s business is already booming, as the company just reported a full-year profit of $1.273 billion on $7.5 billion in revenue. EA laid off more than 600 people and canceled games earlier this year, including a Star Wars FPS.

It’s not just EA looking into in-game ads. In 2023, SCS Software announced that it sold ad space inside American Truck Simulator to the trucking company Schneider National. In 2012, Square Enix launched a browser-based gaming service that allowed users to play games for free with ad breaks.

The spirit of E3 lives on in June as publishers, game studios, and several other initiatives come together to host various livestreams. Only a few more weeks remain until there’s an influx of broadcasts held online, and if you’re looking to organize your schedule, we’ve rounded up a full list of everything announced so far.

Like previous years, one of the big events will be Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest on June 7. An annual event, this showcase is hosted in front of a live audience and is streamed across the globe. Microsoft is hosting its event on June 9, and while games for it haven’t been confirmed yet, there’s a good chance that Avowed, Indiana Jones, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will make appearances. The next entry in the Call of Duty franchise is also rumored to be the focus of a deep dive special immediately after the Xbox event.

More events will probably be announced in time as well, and we wouldn’t be surprised if a new Devolver Direct or Mix|Guerrilla Collective livestream gets added to the schedule. You can check back here for updates to the list as soon as they’re confirmed.

• Summer Game Fest — June 7
• Day of the Devs — June 7
• Access-Ability Showcase — June 7
• Wholesome Direct — June 8
• Future Games Showcase — June 8
• Xbox Games Showcase — June 9
• Xbox mystery showcase — June 9
• Ubisoft Forward — June 10
• Nintendo June Direct — June TBA
• PC Gaming Show — June TBA

June 7

Summer Game Fest

Hosted by Geoff Keighley, Summer Game Fest has been home to some of the biggest reveals of the summer gaming season. Last year saw Mortal Kombat 1, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Alan Wake 2 headline Summer Game Fest, and a “full lineup of participants and activities” will kick off after the main show concludes. Now in its fifth year, this year’s show is promising “new video game announcements, first-looks, and trailers.”

• 2 PM PT
• 5 PM ET
• 10 PM BST
• 6 AM JST (June 8)
• 7 AM AEST (June 8)

Day of the Devs

Kicking off directly after Summer Game Fest, Day of the Devs from Double Fine and iam8bit is focused on indie games and the people who make them.

Access-Ability Showcase

Following last year’s inaugural livestream, the Access-Ability Showcase is back again to show off more games made by disabled developers and the accessibility options available in each one. The showcase will focus on new games and the ways that accessibility for disabled players can be improved.

• 8 AM PT
• 11 AM ET
• 4 PM BST
• 12 AM JST (June 8)
• 1 AM AEST (June 8)

June 8

Wholesome Direct

As its name implies, the Wholesome Direct is all about good vibes, cozy games, and uplifting debuts. For anyone looking for charming games to add to their wishlist, Wholesome Direct is one livestream to watch out for.

• 9 AM PT
• 12 PM ET
• 5 PM BST
• 1 AM JST (June 9)
• 2 AM AEST (June 9)

Future Games Show: Summer Showcase

Presented by GamesRadar, this year’s show will feature “exciting updates on blockbuster games and deeper dives into anticipated indies” according to its organizers.

June 9

Xbox Games Showcase

While Xbox hasn’t revealed which games will be present at its event, we’ll likely see more of its upcoming releases currently scheduled for this year. Avowed, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 are all penciled in for a 2024 launch. There will be a deep-dive special immediately after the main showcase, which is reportedly focused on Call of Duty.

• 10 AM PT
• 1 PM ET
• 6 PM BST
• 2 AM JST (June 10)
• 3 AM AEST (June 10)

June 10

Ubisoft Forward

Ubisoft is staying tight-lipped as to what players can expect when it broadcasts live from LA this year, but some of its potential titles could be Star Wars Outlaws, the Splinter Cell remake, and Assassin’s Creed Codename Red, amongst others. In February, Ubisoft said that it planned to reveal the “extent” of its lineup this month for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which could lead nicely to its June event.

June – TBA

Nintendo June Direct

Nintendo plays its cards close to its chest, and for this year’s June Nintendo Direct, the company has revealed very little. What it has confirmed is that you might want to temper your expectations, as it plans to focus on games arriving for the Switch in the latter half of 2024 and it won’t be discussing the Switch 2 console in this livestream.

PC Gaming Show

Hosted by PC Gamer, the PC Gaming Show has been held annually since 2015. Originally launched as a response to how underrepresented PC gaming was at E3 (how the times have changed!) fans can expect new game debuts and trailers during the June showcase.